Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1889 — THE SHOP LIFTER. [ARTICLE]

THE SHOP LIFTER.

i jt-t.'cti :.. .. _ ,_ r r . Big CUy Stores Hake » Black List the Offenders. In the great dry-goods Bazaars In all large cities, there are amongst the thousands of feminine shoppers who daily throng the counters a great many absentminded women, a few victims of kleptomania, and here and there a downright Thk atore prietors, nowever, cannot go into these nice distinctions, but bunch all together In the category of , petty thieves, or shop-lifters. In a large establishment the loss occasioned by these persons is considerable, so that it has become the general custom to employ, in addition to the “floor-waiker,” one or more detectives, who are con Wantfy on the lookout for customers seeking to appropriate articles without going through the formality of paying for them. Notwithstanding all precautions, the depredations continue. It is a delicate matter to arrest a lady in a public store. It is still more painful to accuse and disgrace an innocent person—a mistake which overzealous watchers occasionally make. The proprietor of a large shop, who claims to have lost quite heavily in this manner during every holiday season for some years past says- “I think we have found a means at last ohecking this great leak. The shop-lifter who habitually steals is suppressed by this method, and those just beginning in their career are frightened by it into reform. Ail the merchants are adopting it. It was my idea, but I was glad to give it to the others, and now we circulate amongst ourselves a black-list of habitual offenders so that the professionals are finding this a petty hard season. ” This merchant, when a cl oar case has been establish against a shop-lifter, summons her to his ollice, and proposes to her the only alternative of immediate arrest or of signing a document confessing her thefts and agreeing not to enter into that shop again. The culprit usually prefers to sign the document, thus hushing the matter up, and at the same time supplying the proprietor with an effective instrument of protection. It is asserted that some establishments have collections of these tell-tale authographs whicn would shock the world if they were revealed.